TEAL GROUP FORECASTS CONTINUED BIZJET GROWTH
Everywhere one looks these days companies and organizations are positively bullish about business aviation's economic prospects. The latest glowing forecast comes this week from the Northern Virginia-based Teal Group, an aerospace and defense industry consulting and analysis firm. Richard L. Aboulafia, vice president of analysis for the Teal Group, this week released his firm's industry overview and 2007 market forecast, the headline from which is this: "Long term growth looks great. This REALLY is a transformed industry." Aboulafia's analysis looked at a variety of metrics, including historical jet aircraft availability and value dating back to 1964, used jet supply and demand, average selling prices and industry profits -- among other industry variables -- to come up with his firm's 17th business jet forecast. Highlights of that prognostication include deliveries of 12,000 bizjets worth $173.2 billion in 2007 dollars through the next 10 years (2007-2016). Additionally, Aboulafia says those numbers don't count some 424 corporate jetliners and RJs worth $12.3 billion. Of course, there are caveats. Among them: a continued strong economy, a soft landing from any declines and no recession. Hand in hand with those caveats are continued strength in corporate profits and globalization, along with emerging market growth. More...

FLIGHT OPTIONS, PILOTS AT ODDS OVER CANPASS REQUIREMENT
Pilots at fractional operator Flight Options, a subsidiary of the Raytheon Company and not part of its recent civil aviation assets sale, are reacting angrily to their employer's new requirement for them to gain Canadian approval for expedited entry into that country. According to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, whose Local 1108 represents the nearly 700 pilots at Flight Options, the operator recently decided to require its pilots to hold so-called CANPASS authorization, which permits certain travelers to enter Canada using expedited customs and immigration procedures. CANPASS stands for Canadian Passenger Accelerated Service System; to use the expedited customs and immigration procedures available through the program, all persons aboard an entering aircraft must participate and have received prior approval from the Canadian government. According to the labor union, "a traffic violation or misdemeanor conviction in the U.S. can prevent any individual from obtaining CANPASS authority. Because it is only a program of convenience, pilots who are not eligible for CANPASS are still able to fly to and from Canada using standard customs and immigration procedures, the union said. More...

CHARTERX / WYVERN UNVEIL PILOT & AIRCRAFT SAFETY SURVEY
A new product resulting from last year’s merger between CharterX and Wyvern Consulting was unveiled yesterday at the Corporate Aviation Safety Seminar (CASS) in Tucson, Ariz. The seminar, hosted by the Flight Safety Foundation and the National Business Aviation Association, saw CharterX/Wyvern announce their new PASS program, an acronym for Pilot and Aircraft Safety Survey, which is designed to keep charter passengers aware of who is flying their airplane along with their qualifications. Indeed, the company said its new PASS program enables air charter passengers, brokers and operators to ensure that each and every flight meets existing or specified safety standards. A PASS certifies that a flight is in legal compliance and that it meets upcoming Department of Transportation rulemaking regarding full preflight disclosure of a FAR Part 135 operator. Operational control, doing business as (DBA) and broker/arranger relationships are disclosed. More...

BIZAV CONSULTING SERVICES CONSOLIDATED
Four business aviation consulting firms this week announced allying themselves under an umbrella organization known as ACCESS Alliance. The newly formed group -- founded by Alliance, Aviation Personnel International (API), Waypoint Partners, Gray Stone Associates and Jet Perspectives -- is based on a business model allowing any one member to expand their consulting services from single-requirement assignments to more comprehensive and multi-faceted projects drawing on other alliance members. According to the organization, ACCESS Alliance’s services encompass human resources consulting, management consulting, operational reviews, aircraft transaction consulting and asset appraising; each of the founding companies represents a key specialty and has in-depth experience in their area of expertise. When combined, Alliance members have more than 180 years of expertise to draw on for their individual clients. More...

GULFSTREAM'S AIRBORNE WARRANTY SERVICE IS FIVE YEARS OLD
Gulfstream Aerospace last week said it is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its Airborne Product Support (APS) service -- kind of a AAA card for Gulfstream operators -- and what the company says is the first-of-its-kind airborne aircraft maintenance and repair support program. Since the program officially launched on May 6, 2002, Gulfstream has completed more than 1,350 Airborne Product Support missions, 96 of which have been outside the U.S. The program uses a Gulfstream G100 jet, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year to assist customer aircraft under warranty. The G100 transports flight-essential parts, such as tires and windshields, test equipment and technicians to airports within North America, Central America and the Caribbean. More...

EBACE 2007 TO RECOGNIZE TWO FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS
Organizers behind the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE 2007) -- the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) and the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) -- yesterday announced Judith Moreton, managing director of Bombardier Skyjet International, and Mark Wilson, chief executive of the British Business and General Aviation Association, will receive European Business Aviation Awards later this month at the show. According to EBACE, the two will receive the awards in recognition of "their outstanding contributions to European business aviation." Moreton has a 22-year career in aviation, including a variety of operational and management roles both in regional and international airlines, and in business aviation organizations in the UK and Europe. She joined Bombardier Flexjet Europe in 2002 as head of European Operations, and became managing director in 2003. Wilson more than 15 years experience in business and general aviation. He became the chief executive of the British Business and General Aviation Association (BBGA) -- formerly GAMTA -- in 2003, thus representing the association's members to all relevant international, European and national civil aviation authorities. More...

FAA PROPOSES HARMONIZING ROTORCRAFT ENGINE-OUT STANDARDS
The FAA last week formally proposed new rules designed to bring its rotorcraft certification standards into "harmonization" with existing European standards and proposed Canadian regulations. The new rules, found in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), amend the FAA's existing one-engine inoperative (OEI) definitions and type certification standards for 30-second OEI, two-minute OEI and 30-minute OEI ratings for rotorcraft turbine engines. The proposed rule, if adopted, would "revise the ratings’ standards to reflect recent analyses of the ratings’ usage and lessons learned from completed engine certifications and service experience." Public comments on the proposal are due by Aug. 2, 2007. More...

CESSNA NAMES STAN YOUNGER VICE PRESIDENT, SERVICE FACILITIES
ilities. In his new position, Younger will manage all activities of the company’s 10 Citation service centers as well as its network of some two dozen authorized service centers around the world. Younger will report to Mark Paolucci, senior vice president, Customer Service, and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Wichita. Younger is a 28-year veteran of Cessna’s customer support organization. He began his career as an A&P mechanic in 1979 at Wichita and has held positions of increasing responsibility at Cessna service centers in Wichita and San Antonio, Texas. His most recent position was director, Citation Service Facilities. More...

PSSSST: WANNA BUY A PILOT?
Finding a good pilot is always one of the more formidable challenges aircraft operators have. Of course, the converse is true: Finding a decent piloting job at a trustworthy company can be harder than the flight training necessary to do the flying. One enterprising Norwegian pilot is trying to use the popular Internet auction site eBay to widen his job search and, hopefully, snag a flying job. The pilot, with the eBay ID of "jonas_tind," is auctioning "unlimited use of a male pilot (27) for one year." According to the auction, he so far has earned his FAA commercial pilot certificate and an instrument rating and has logged 350 hours total time. He's also type-rated in the Beech/Raytheon 1900 B/C/D. More...

AVwebBiz is a weekly summary of the latest business aviation news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the Internet's aviation magazine and news service.

Today's issue was written by Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside (bio).

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